Haru ni Sakura
by Always RuroKen
Summary: Misao and Aoshi meet up with the Kenshin-gumi on Mouni Ueno just like in the last chapter of Rurouni Kenshin with the same name. Kind of an extension of that chapter. Aoshi shows he's hubby material ;)


Misao spun around, letting her sleeves fill with air, cherry blossom petals alighting in her hair. Aoshi watched her as she ran ahead of him and smiled a little. She laughed and turned to him. "Isn't this great, Aoshi-sama?' she asked for the third time. "It's been two years!"

"Indeed it has." Caught staring, Aoshi answered quickly, the breeze lifting his ponytail. He stepped closer to her. "You have a petal in your hair." He noticed, brushing it off with a flick of his gloved hand.

"Thanks!" Misao grinned.

As they walked further up the path, they saw the picnic mat, Kaoru with Kenji in her lap, Kenshin with a cup in front of him and Megumi sitting down nearby. Misao ran up. "Afternoon!" she yelled excitedly, waving. "Here we are!"

"Misao-chan!"

"Hi!"

Aoshi began to take off his coat, nodding. Misao smiled widely. "What a wonderful thing, everybody gathered at Mount Ueno to see the cherry blossoms in this _beautiful_ weather!"

Kenshin smiled. "Misao-dono is as cheerful as usual."

Misao did a peace sign. "Yep! I'm doing just fine!" she sat down next to Kaoru.

Aoshi sat also, next to Kenshin. The two men exchanged glances. "…I've gotten the information you asked." Said Aoshi. "About Saitou Hajime."

Kenshin nodded. Aoshi continued. "It looks as if he's in Hokkaido now. I couldn't get what his mission was this time, but it's certain that he's doing fine as usual." Aoshi glanced at Kenshin. "What happened?" he asked. "Have you decided to have a final match with him?"

Kenshin shook his head, smiling a little, a far-away look in his eyes. "Not at all… If he's fine, that's all that matters, indeed it does. After all…" Kenshin looked up. "Now he's the man whose life is most surrounded in perils…"

Aoshi nodded. "…True indeed."

"Hey!" there was a call from over the hill.

"Yahiko!" yelled Misao back.

The boy set down the things he was carrying. "I went to the Akabeko and brought some sake, a few side-dishes." He indicated the girl beside him. "I took the occasion to take Tsubame along."

"Like a date?" Kaoru teased.

At this, Yahiko reddened. "What?! Shut up!" Tsubame covered her blushing face with her hands.

As the food was set out, Aoshi looked at Kenshin. "So is everybody here?"

Kenshin nodded, then shook his head. "This one thinks so. To tell the truth, I wanted to call one more person, but we don't know his whereabouts so…" he stopped.

Misao gasped. "Oh yeah! That Rooster-head!"

Megumi looked at her food very intently, her fingers tightening around her chopsticks.

Yahiko looked up from his food. "Oops." He said guiltily. "I had almost forgotten." He got something out of the front of his top. "Here's a letter that Rooster-head sent us. I found it just before leaving the dojo."

Everyone looked over in surprise. "What?!" Misao yelled. "Open it! Open it!"

Kaoru elbowed Kenshin. "Kenshin, read it!"

Megumi almost dropped her bowl. "Where's that idiot been?!"

Kenshin opened the letter ad everyone fell silent. " _Hey, it's been a long time, huh?"_ read Kenshin _. "How's everybody? Nobody dead yet? I'm having a lot of fun, here in Mongolia right now_."

" _Mongolia?!_ " Megumi screeched.

Continuing reading, Kenshin patted her arm comfortingly. " _After that departure I took a tour to America then to Europe and then to Arabia and I've had a very good time so far. I'll be around here for a little while and then I'll go back to Japan. So get a delicious bowl of white rice and miso soup upon my arrival, ok?_ " Kenshin smiled fondly, sighing and shaking his head a little. " _See ya!_ "

"That idiot means to cross the whole world?!" Megumi exclaimed in outrage.

"What the _hell_ is he thinking?"

"Does he intend to be an adventurer?"

Aoshi shook his head, glancing at Megumi. "I hope for his sake that he comes back home soon."

Megumi smiled. "Don't worry." She said. "Even if he came home right now, I'd still give him the biggest ass-kicking of his life, worse than the one he got from Saitou."

Misao patted Megumi's hand. "You'll probably forgive him as soon as you see him, though." She said quietly, with a smile.

"Speak for yourself." Said Megumi with a good-natured smile.

Aoshi eyed Misao from the other side of the mat, taking a sip of tea. Kenshin smiled at him and spoke with a conspiratorial whisper. "How is Misao-dono?"

"Well, as far as I can see." Aoshi said. "She reads a lot now." he remembered all the positions that she read in (including hanging upside-down, sitting on the roof and in the top of a tree) and his eyes softened, amusement on his face. "But for some reason only in high places."

Kenshin shrugged. "Well, each to his or her own, this one guesses."

Misao looked over and poked Aoshi's arm. "Don't make fun of me, you two." She said. "For your information…" she said indignantly. "It's the only way I can concentrate."

Aoshi poured her tea. "It is rather amazing that you can read in such situations." He said soothingly.

She blushed. "Oh, _stop it_!" she giggled. "Aoshi-sama, flattery will get you…" she thought about it. "Probably anywhere, with me, to be honest." She sighed.

Taking a sip of tea, Aoshi didn't meet her eyes. "I will be sure to flatter you whenever I can, then." He said very quietly.

Misao went red as a beet and Kaoru elbowed her. "So you are getting somewhere with him!" she said in a quiet whisper only Misao could hear.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Misao looked at Kaoru. "So I actually _did_ hear that." She said. "I thought I'd been having wishful-thinking ear problems recently…"

Kaoru laughed, letting Kenji off her lap. "Oh, Misao, Misao." She said. "All I can do is wish you the best of luck!"

"For what?"

Misao yelped as she heard the voice next to her. "Aoshi-sama! Um! Reading the entire Aoiya library!"

Aoshi looked at her. "That is quite a task." He said impassively, drinking more tea.

"Yo, ninja-lovebirds!" Yahiko called. "Coming your way!"

Before the two of them could glare at him, Kenji came toppling over and planted himself squarely in Aoshi's lap. "Aoshi-nii." He said firmly and strangely clearly for a two-year old. "Like." He said approvingly.

For the first time in several years, Aoshi was slightly lost for words. He glanced at Misao for either help or answers. She was looking straight at him, smiling. At the look on his face, she laughed. "Just move your ponytail away from him." She said in a stage whisper. "He likes pulling hair."

Aoshi flicked his hair over his shoulder and met the stare of the little boy. Kenji smiled. He rubbed his cheek against Aoshi's suit sleeve. "Soft." He said.

"Is it?" Aoshi said.

Kenji nodded, then looked at Aoshi's tie. "What's that?" he asked, lisping.

"A tie."

"Why?"

"To wear."

"Why?"

Aoshi thought a little. "No idea. People just do."

Kenji seemed satisfied with that. He looked at Aoshi's coat laying nearby. "What's that?" he asked.

"A coat."

"Big!" Kenji waved his arms.

Aoshi shrugged, smiling faintly. "It's my coat."

Kenji shrugged. Then he grinned. "I wanna!" he hopped off of Aoshi and crawled into the coat until only the tip of his nose and his ponytail stuck out.

Kaoru looked at Aoshi. "I'm really sorry." She said. "Kenji, don't-"

Aoshi shook his head. "It's alright." He said. "He seems to be enjoying himself." He turned, only to meet Misao's gaze. Her cheeks were flushed and her hands were pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide and sparkling.

"…Aoshi-sama!"

He looked at her questioningly. "What is it?"

"So cute!" she managed without squealing.

Aoshi looked at her. "…I'm cute?" he asked, slowly.

She nodded feverishly. "Oh my god. Yes!"

Aoshi opened his mouth to say something – but Kenji got up, the coat sort of draped on his shoulders, the collar standing above his head. "Look!" he said. He frowned, pulling a face. "Shishou!" he said.

Kenshin choked on his tea and everyone laughed really hard except for Aoshi, who was still confused as to why Misao had called him 'cute'.

After a while, Kenshin looked up at the sky. "Oh, clouds are gathering, indeed they are! It might rain!"

Yahiko packed up everything and kept glancing at Tsubame if she was seeing everything he was carrying. Kenji reluctantly gave up Aoshi's coat and Megumi, Kenshin and Kaoru walked down the path ahead of Aoshi and Misao.

Misao smelled the oncoming rain and noticed how bright all the colors seemed when the sky was bright gray like that. "I can almost _feel_ the green of the grass." She said absentmindedly. Aoshi looked at her. Continuing, Misao laughed. "You with Kenji… That was really cute." She said. Misao looked up at him. "You wanna know why?" she asked.

"Enlighten me."

"It's a very cute thing to be good with kids. Especially for a serious, good-looking guy. Almost like… Showing that you're husband material." Then she clapped her hands to her mouth. "Ah! What the hell kind of a thing am I saying!" she waved her hands at him. "Ignore me!"

"That's rather difficult. Ignoring you." Aoshi said, trying to seem nonchalant. "That is to say…" he continued, searching for words. "For me, you are always… _There_. …Either by me, or I'm thinking of you."

Misao went red and she pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening, her lips pressing together to keep from grinning like an idiot. "Aoshi-sama! Did you just-"

Aoshi nodded, trying to ignore the slight warmness of his cheeks. If he looked her in the eyes now he wouldn't be able to say anything coherent. "…Yes. As a matter of fact, I think I did."

That was when Misao hit him with a flying tackle, causing him to fall back onto the grass. "Aoshi-sama-aa!"

With flower petals in her hair, flushed cheeks and wide sea-green eyes – with her parted lips and fluttering eyelashes – she looked very… Kissable. Aoshi wasn't exactly sure that that it was the right word, or if it even _was_ a word, but he decided he didn't really care at all - and kissed her.


End file.
